Battle Scars
by tigermoth26
Summary: story revision


The War of the Worlds  
tigermoth26  
nvc425@h...  
  
Rated:G (for good;)  
  
Category: DJR, angst, Janet POV  
  
Spoilers: 2010  
  
Summary: A warning from the other side.  
Disclaimer: The characters and references to the episodes of Stargate   
SG-1 do not belong to me. I just write fanfic...and if I really was   
talented enough to dream up these characters, oh, what a rich young   
lady I would be.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The War of the Worlds  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
  
By the time that you have finished reading this sentence, another   
version of yourself will have skimmed on to the next page. Another   
version of yourself will click on the link, and find that the server   
is not connected. One of the downfalls of using Geocities, I   
presume. And yet another you will not even give these words a second   
glance, choosing to wander idly through the internet without ever   
wondering what these words did say. Another, more unfortunate   
version of yourself will power up your computer, feel dizzy, keel   
over, and die.  
  
Congratulations on making it this far. My name is Janet Fraiser, and   
this is the story that I have to tell.   
  
I never used to believe in 'What If...'. I always placed my mind in   
the 'Here' and 'Now'. Several things have happened to me in this   
lifetime to deviate me from that previous path. I now believe that   
every little decision that we make, our every move, result in   
parallel universes which spin off into time. Each of those new   
universes that we inadvertently create, give birth to new universes   
of their own. And so, the process continues. An infinite number of   
lives. Each one fragmenting on to a billion different planes of   
existence. Each parallel exploring every 'What If...' that you or I   
could possibly imagine.  
  
In my reality, I am in hiding. This Earth is sentenced to a   
lingering, yet painless death. Every one of my closest friends are   
dead. Not at the hands of the Goa'uld, but at the hands of the   
Aschen. We met this race ten years ago. At the time we thought they   
were our saviours. They had everything that the people of Earth   
could ever ask for. Advanced weapons and technology, better   
medicines, better everything. They were even willing to help us   
fight the Goa'uld. And what is more, they were willing to do it all   
without cost.  
  
The Aschen, we believed, were a godsend. They killed off the Goa'uld   
by creating a retrovirus which specifically attacked the Goa'uld   
genome. The President was thrilled with their result. Earth was   
immediately signed into an alliance with the Aschen, and the truth   
about the Stargate programme was revealed to the public eye.  
  
The SGC became famous overnight. The media hounded us wherever we   
went. An instant celebrity myself, I now knew what it was like, and   
pitied those movie stars whose private lives I had ruthlessly perused   
over in tabloid magazines.   
  
The Stargate programme was shut down, and the SG teams disbanded.   
You would have expected that we would have stuck together, SG-1 and   
myself, that is. We were such great friends before the Stargate   
programme shutdown. We went to movies, had cookouts, and had   
established a firm friendship whose bonds we believed could never be   
broken. It turned out to be exactly the opposite, in fact. We   
drifted apart, seldom keeping contact with each other. After Sam   
married Joe, Jack took off to his cabin in the woods, never to be   
heard from again. Teal'c had long since returned home to Chu'lak,   
and Daniel moved to London to teach archaeology at one of their   
prestigious universities, a whole wide ocean away.  
  
So, where did that leave me? You wonder. Well, I ended up   
establishing a family doctor's practice in Washington DC. I was   
happy, but I had never felt quite so alone. My daughter Cassandra   
was away at University, and the friends that I held dear had drifted   
away. Not even the media wanted to talk to me anymore. I was just   
another human being enthralled by the Aschen race.   
  
As the years went by my job was made redundant. The Aschen had   
developed machines that could cure cancer and mend broken bones.   
People no longer needed me to set their arms or listen to their   
heartbeats. I was simply now, a referral doctor. People came to me   
for advice as to which Aschen doctor would be the best to cure their   
ill and make them well again.   
  
Three years and four months ago, Sam contacted me a home and invited   
me over for dinner with herself and Joe. I gladly accepted, not   
having heard from my friend since we drifted apart so many years   
before.   
  
Sam had two surprises in store for me that night. The first was the   
news that she and Joe had decided to start trying for a family. I   
was so happy for them, and wished them all the luck in the world.   
  
The second surprise she had, was Daniel. He was still as young and   
as handsome as the last time I had seen him. The anti-aging vaccine   
that the Aschen had developed did wonders at keeping the years at   
bay. My lonely heart leapt for joy at seeing him again. I had   
always had a place in my heart for him, but my respect for his dead   
wife Sha're kept me from developing those feelings any further.   
  
Together, Sam, Daniel, Myself and Joe. all sat around the dinner   
table and caught up on each-other's lives. Sam was working on   
the 'Jupiter Ignition Project', which aimed to turn the planet   
Jupiter into a star. Daniel told us about his life in London and the   
many joys he got from teaching potential young archaeologists the   
secrets of his trade.   
  
We sat and talked until it was almost midnight. We said our goodbyes   
and Daniel walked me to my car. That night, he asked if I would care   
to see him again. He was going to be in DC for a while, to give a   
talk at an archaeological conference that had speakers coming from   
all reaches of the universe.   
  
I believe that the following decision that I made that night could   
have resulted in a million 'What Ifs' that broke away and spun off   
into the universe on different tangents. Had my answer to his   
question been no, I would have continued on in my life, alone.   
Constantly kicking myself in the butt, regretting that I passed up   
the chance to start a relationship with Daniel.  
  
To this day, I thank my lucky stars that I accepted his offer. It   
was the turning point for the both of us to begin on a wonderful new   
romance. My daughter, of course, was thrilled that I had found new   
happiness in my life. Sam, when we told her, was overjoyed.   
Admitting to us that she had seen it coming at us for a long, long   
time.   
  
Everything was perfect from then on. I had Daniel. I had my 'job'.   
My daughter was doing superbly at university, making me proud to have   
raised the trembling alien girl into the wonderful, promising young   
lady that she has become. Life, with all its twists and turns, could   
not possibly have thrown anything at us which could destroy our joy.   
Daniel loved me, and I adored him. We talked lightly about marriage,   
thought about what our kids would look like.   
  
Two years after he had moved in with me, we travelled back to London   
for a holiday. He showed me the university where he had been   
teaching, and then took me around on a tour of the city's sights. St   
Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, the palace, and so much more.   
  
He took me walking one day in the park just next to Buckingham   
Palace. The spring sunshine shone down on our backs. His smile   
warmed my heart. Looking back, I do believe that I could feel the   
many separate universes snapping off and spiralling into time on that   
warm, spring day.  
  
In the middle of the park, under an old knobbed oak tree, Daniel   
Jackson dropped down on one knee and proposed. A thousand universes   
sparked into existence then, each one filled with the 'What Ifs' of   
that moment in time. My heart was filled with joy. How much, I   
asked myself, did I love this man? The answer, I was delighted to   
find, was, and still is, unfathomable.  
  
We spent the rest of that day walking though London, excited at the   
knowledge that we would spend the rest of our days together in what   
would hopefully be wedded bliss. We returned back to our hotel that   
evening, and made sweet, slow love before falling asleep, content in   
each-other's arms.   
  
The next day we returned back to the 'States. It was the Tenth   
Anniversary of the Earth's alliance with the Aschen race. SG-1 had   
been requested specifically to attend and receive the Presidential   
honour. Daniel and I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to   
tell all our friends of our engagement.   
  
We were both disappointed that O'Neill did not attend. We decided   
then that our news could wait a little longer until all five of us   
could get together, as friends.   
After the ceremony, Sam tried to talk me into spilling my happy   
secret. "So?" She said. I remember her impish grin. "What?" I   
asked, feigning innocence. Sam elbowed me gently in the arm. "What   
was that?"   
"What was what?" I quickly turned the focus of the conversation onto   
her. "Tell me Sam, are you and Joe...?" I let my question trail off.   
Sam's smile melted from her face, replaced with the disappointed   
shaking of her head.   
  
I couldn't believe it. They had been trying to get pregnant for   
three years now. I offered to give her a second opinion, and she   
reluctantly complied. The results that I found from that test   
changed our lives forever. Every single 'What If' that could have   
been, raged off furiously into space. If Sam really was okay, then   
everything would have worked out just fine. She and Joe would have   
returned back home and kept on trying. If, perhaps, I suspected that   
my results were wrong, I would have gone back to my laboratory and   
run the tests again. The 'What Ifs' were immeasurable.   
  
The 'What If' that happened in my world, however, was not one that I   
could have ever dreamed possible. Not event in the wildest of my   
imagination. And trust me, I can be pretty creative when I put my   
mind to it.  
  
On that fateful day, we found out that the Aschen had been   
sterilising humans in secrecy for the past ten years. The human race   
was slowly but surely heading towards the Sixth Great Extinction, at   
the hands of an alien race.   
  
What death could be more painless, and yet, so excruciating, than   
having to live the rest of your life knowing that, for every breath   
you breathed, the human race crept forever closer to the brink of   
extinction? That same evening we met up at a restaurant and shared   
the news of the Aschen's betrayal with Daniel and Teal'c. It was   
like old times again. We, as a team, formulated a plan that could   
help us save the world.   
  
We were going to send a message back in time to ensure that this   
particular 'What If' would never occur. It was certainly risky, but   
we knew that we would have to make it work.   
  
As the hours grew closer to our deadline, we suddenly realised the   
depth of what we were about to do. This 'What If', where Daniel and   
I had ended up so happily, was destined to come crashing down around   
us in a matter of hours. I made love to Daniel over and over in the   
silent hours before the morning. We both knew that this was to be   
our last time together. All our plans, all our hopes and dreams,   
were about to be thrown to the wind. Never to be dreamed of again.   
  
I kissed him goodbye for an eternity in the afternoon before I left   
for Chu'lak to deliver the coordinates to Teal'c. We sealed our lips   
together in love and passion, knowing painfully that this would   
definitely be the last time that we would see the other alive.   
Reluctantly, we broke the kiss, due to our bodies need for oxygen.   
He held me close. I still remember the soft wool of his vest where   
it rubbed against my cheek, and the gentle murmur of his "I love you"   
in my ear.  
  
With a heavy heart I left the circle of his arms and stepped onto the   
escalator, turning before I reached the Stargate stairs to give him a   
final wave goodbye. He waved back with a smile, and I turned around,   
never looking back, through the Stargate to Chu'lak. I had another   
world to save.  
  
I returned, two days later, under disguise. My heart wept when I   
learnt that Sam, Jack, Teal'c and my beloved Daniel had died in their   
attempt to send their message through the 'Gate. Joe had been   
arrested for being an accessory to the act, and my daughter was being   
questioned as to my whereabouts. I couldn't even tell her that I was   
still alive. The Aschen police were after me too. They wanted to   
kill me because I knew what they were trying to do. My only   
condolence was the knowledge that our note had gotten through to the   
other side.   
  
Now, dear reader, I must go. I can hear the footfalls of Aschen   
police as they draw nearer to this room, where I sit in front of the   
Quantum Mirror, hoping to save another 'What If' from suffering my   
world's terrible fate.   
  
I will leave you now with this warning, which I deplore you please to   
take to heart.   
  
Do not, under any circumstances, travel to the co-ordinates 'P4C-970'.  
  
All the best.  
  
Janet Fraiser. 


End file.
